A new cultural revolution: the commercialisation of culture in China

While landmark cases of artistic liberalisation or repression have been appearing with their customary regularity in China over recent years, and receiving due attention among foreign scholars, a more profound development in the organisation and marketing of all manner of cultural services appears to have passed almost without notice. A small but significant portion of the cultural network in China has become cornmercialised in the sense that cultural production units have come to assume responsibility for their own profits and losses, and authority over their activities has been transferred from state and collective management to small groups and private individuals. The effects of this development have been felt in scattered areas for a few years in the form of the improved motivation, productivity and livelihood of artists working under the new regime, and in a private-sector rural cultural revival, but its political ramifications have only recently gained recognition even within China.